Leading on from my hardtail thread, does anyone still ride rigid bikes or is anyone building one. I was thinking Pace frame and forks and as much brittish stuff as possible. So far I know of hope, middleburn and X-lite parts that I want but does anyone know of brit companies where I can get even more stuff from?
Still ride a rigid bike, an old cannondale SM1000. For summer bridleways, gravel tracks etc it's fine. With semi slicks it's ideal for epic onroad/offroad rides and doing long distance cycleways.
In a fit of madness I decided to take the recently revamped bike to Dalby forest and the black route just to see how much of my riding ability was technology not technique. All I can say is it's suprising how easy I found falling off was. Stuff like tree roots which would be barely noticable on a full susser sent me flying over the bars. Keeping the front tire following anything like the desired line on steep and fast downhills proved hard and once again flying lessons resulted. After a while I lost some of the confidence full suspension had given me and I managed to stay on the bike. I even got to enjoy the lightness and lack of bob of a rigid bike on the climbs.
In conclusion, a rigid bike is great for very easy offroad stuff, but be careful when you try it on trails you thought were easy on a full susser!
I have had an orange E2 for 11 years, put some pace RC36 forks on 2 years ago and was amazed. Now have a Santa Cruz blur as well and am the first of my mates to go full sus. OK its like flying in an armchair but it does take a lot of the skill out of riding as you don’t have to pick your lines and gears as well. What really scared me though was a woman at the bike shop with a full susser. She asked me a load of questions including how do you bunny hop? Do you bounce the suspension? No I replied you just jump upwards pulling on the bars and lifting your legs up. Oh she replied I cant do that. Sounds like the last rigid bike she rode had Barbie on the frame. Everybody should go on a rigid bike once in a while just to keep their skills in check.
I can't see the point of worrying about buying British either. Makes sense with food, not with bikes.
I've got a Dean titanium singlespeed with Kinenis (sp?) Maxlight forks - the forks are very ugly indeed, but they only weigh a fraction more than RC31s, and don't do that worrying bending thing when you brake. it's got big wide bars and big fat tyres and rides rather nicely.
god yeah i ride a rigid! my Singlespeed is a cannondale beast of the east fram with p-bone forks.... i don't think you can get much more rigid than that : )
i love it! supprising how much you rely on suspension, and how riding rigid makes you a better rider, IMHO. same with gears, people rely on them far too much
"i love it! supprising how much you rely on suspension, and how riding rigid makes you a better rider, IMHO. same with gears, people rely on them far too much"
I think thats only true to a point. As much as most things are rideable without suspension, there are limits, which moving to hardtails and full sus will push. Certainly starting out rigid, or at least hardtail is a great way of learning to ride well and find good lines.
As far as gears go, again, my geared riding has benefitted from riding singlespeed, I'm faster and fitter and generally pedal better when riding geared now.
However the whole retro grouch gears/sus are rubbish argument just doesn't work with me. IMO it's horses for courses, a time and a place for everything.
i just find it nice to ditch my hardtail, disc brake and clipless pedaled £2,500 bike and blast around on one gear, fully rigid, with flats and (awful) v'brakes.... i think you loose a lot of the basic skills when you ride with all these fancy bits : )
I don't think you "loose" those skills, you just use them differently.
Riding with suspension isn't skill-less, when you are descending faster (which a good rider, with skills picked up riding rigid/hardtail, ought to be doing on full sus), you still need your skills at picking a line etc.
I know it's probably been discussed to death before, but doesn't single speeding shag your knees? I know I have the raw power in my legs to drive the cranks round, as sometimes for grins I run a much harder gear than I could uphill, but I have noticed my knees are not happy when I do this. Single speeding looks like a fun thing, and I can understand the appeal on a rigid simple rig, as it's a good way to get some fun out of the tired old bike most of us seem to have loafing in a garage, but once manufactures start to build full susser singlespeeds it starts to seem like the bandwagon has been jumped on once again.
"singlespeedin has shown my that you don't need to use gears nearly as much as you think."
try going back to a geared full on XC bike, see how much faster you are after singlespeeding for a while. It's frightening!
Dylan, you do need to build your knees up a bit, and yes it can bugger your knees up. However, if you want to get your fitness up fast, it's great! I kinda don't see the point in full sus singlespeeding, but, as far as other purpose designed frames go, it's well worth it.
